Welcome back for day 5 in Buenos Aires! You know the drill by know. Today we visited the neighborhood La Matanza. While here we visited a public hospital, Paroissien Hospital, and visited University of La Matanza.
We were given a tour of Paroissien Hospital. Something interesting about the hospital is that is mostly one floor, when you do go to the other floors you do not go up, but down. This hospital is a public hospital just like Hospital Fernandez we visited yesterday, but there are drastic differences between the two. Unlike Hospital Fernandez Paroissien Hospital is not very worried about charging patients if they have healthcare coverage. They want to make sure everyone is getting treated. This shows that with the universal healthcare coverage everyone is treated equally. What this impedes though is equity. If someone pays for another coverage, whether it be private or through an obras sociale, and chooses to go to a public hospital that is not through their additional coverage their insurance they pay for should be charge because they are taking away money and resources from someone who has no other form of coverage. Equity is when everyone is given different tools to succeed. If someone has no form of coverage other than the public insurance, they should be treated and not charged. If someone who goes to a public hospital does have an additional form of coverage, their insurance should be charged because they have resources from their additional coverage allocated for them to use, such as private hospitals or specific public hospitals the obras sociale may work with.
After our tour at Paroissien Hospital, we headed over to University of La Matanza. We were given a tour of campus. We saw the labs they use for the nursing students to practice. We saw the technology building, where they also have a 3-D printer that they can use to print tools that nursing students use for less than what they can buy tools for. We also saw the university’s sports facilities. This is very unique to have in Argentina. Very few universities in Argentina have sports teams, which is quite uncommon compared to universities in the States. We ate lunch in the cafeteria. There were many options to choose from, and it should be noted most food was better than the food we all experienced this past year from Pitt’s dining hall, The Eatery.
After lunch we listened to Grant give a small presentation to some La Matanza students about the history of Pitt and try and explain the university system and enrollment process. We got to listen to a presentation on how the university system works in Argetina. It is very different from the States. Public universities are free here in Argentina, also students do not live on-campus or move to other states (here provinces) to go to college. They usually go to the college were they are from and live with their parents.
After getting to learn about the education system I noticed that it promotes equity. With public universities being free it gives students access to get an education without financial challenges, unlike in the States. I noticed this promotion of equity from the university when we were visiting the technology building. They told us how with students who are attending for a degree in technology usually drop out half-way through because of a job offer. They were able to try and stop this by giving students resources with companies to work about 5 hours a day while attending school to get their degree. But with nursing because many tools and equipment they may need is expensive, being able to 3-D print the equipment saves money while also giving the nursing students they tools they need to succeed.
Today was super long, and my energy is running low. But this doesn’t mean I will slow down. I cannot wait for boat ride tomorrow. But mostly excited to see if we get back early without a lot of traffic to maybe fit in a nice needed nap! See you all here again tomorrow.